Win Tix to See Eels on Oct. 12

Hey there! Long time no posts. Even as out of the loop as I’ve been lately, though, I could NOT turn down a chance to hook you up with tickets to one of my favorite musical acts of all time.

Lead Eel Mark Oliver Everett, aka “E”, is an unlikely object for a crush, but I’m totally a fangirl. His plain-speaking lyrics contain so much emotion and heart, managing to do that for which every writer strives: containing as much meaning as possible in as simple a way as possible. As Emily Dickinson said, “For writers, a success prescription / Fewer words / More description.”

Eels albums are powerful, full of dark topics treated squarely-on. But the live shows are wild and animated, with the band rocking out & dancing onstage, an incongruous sight with bearded, sunglass-wearing dudes jumping around the stage, doing high kicks.

Wanna go? Of course you do! Leave a comment telling me your favorite Eels lyrics & a little bit about why you love ’em. I’ll pick a couple lucky winners to go to the show tomorrow night. Be sure to fill out the email field on the comment-submit form correctly so I can get in touch with you.

Ooh, that’s too hard. There are so many good ones, and (I find) that they are mood dependent. If I listen to “Things the grandchildren should know” I have to listen to “Hey man, now you’re really living” afterwards, because TTGSK is one of the most raw emotional songs I know. But then a lot of Eels songs are kind of raw and emotional, and even if you think they’re not, it turns out they are. (Case in point “Friendly Ghost”, which it turns out is about the aftermath of E’s sister’s funeral.)

Sometimes they’re less subtle: :”It’s a motherfucker, Being here without you” (It’s a Motherfucker) or “Something about spending the afternoon / Asleep in your armsI / hate you / fucker.” (From Fucker).

Maybe because it’s my favorite Christmas song, and it’s such a great title for a song, I’ll go with “Everything’s gonna be cool this christmas”

“As days go by the more we need friends
And the harder they are to find
If i could have a friend like you all my life
Well i guess i’d be doin’ just fine”

@Chris – nice choice. That always brings up a great image for me. Wish I’d thought of that and put it first. :)

Oh, just read the bit about why I love the eels. Partly, they (well, E) has aged with me (although I’m 6 mopnths older than him). The songs have become more mellow, at the same time that I did (even though I never thought I would), but they’ve also become more sophisticated. He couldn’t have put “In my younger days” on “Beautiful Freak”, and if he did, it wouldn’t have meant anything to me; but now it does. Some of the issues that are dealt with in the songs (like losing a parent) are so very personal for me too – that’s why I find TTGSK so difficult, but they also deal with existential crises that I never used to worry about (like Railroad man).

Have you seen the KCRW video where Chet plays the saw? I can’t believe that (a) a saw can be played, and (b) it sounds so plaintive. Link here: http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/mb080415eels . The saw is during the song “Bus stop boxer” at about 29 minutes in. Listen to that (the whole thing) and tell me it’s not the finest collection of songs you’ve ever heard.

This single introduced me to Eels oh so long ago, and it’s still my favorite. Why do I love Eels? Let me count the ways
1. That combo of moment-in-life and music. “Fresh Feeling” will always remind me of a certain person and that’s incredible.
2. That BBC documentary!
3. Souljacker was one of the first albums I ever owned on vinyl, and certainly the first one that gave me any cred at all.
4. E is the son of the man who invented the many-worlds idea of quantum theory and the nerd in me can’t resist that. Amazing!